Construction

A common practice in reservation of rights letters has been heavily criticized by the South Carolina Supreme Court. In fact, the court rejected a generic reservation of rights letter. It stated: “It is axiomatic that an insured must be provided suf… Read More

Why the discussion of a construction project in a case concerning Facebook? The judge was making an analogy in a dispute as to whether communications between Mark Zuckerberg and Goldman Sachs, channeled through counsel, were privileged. Using a const… Read More

Some states recognize the doctrine expressed in English as “no time runs against the king” and in Latin as “nullum tempus occurrit regi.” The doctrine arises from time to time when a state agency seeks to recover against a private company on… Read More

A contractor seeking almost $1 million in claimed cost overruns against a subcontractor’s bond has been reminded that the bond terms must be followed. Or else. The bond required the prime contractor, as bond obligee, to do three things: (a) give no… Read More

The University of Pittsburgh has come out on the losing end of coverage battles with two different malpractice carriers for the architecture firm, The Ballinger Co., hired by Pitt to design a renovation project to Pitt’s Salk Hall (named for Jonas… Read More

The Maryland Court of Special Appeal has recently issued decisions in two separate matters, reaching similar conclusions on very different sets of facts. The outcomes were (1) a related non-party could not be compelled to arbitrate, nor (2) could a p… Read More

A hauling company submitted bids for removal of three different types of construction debris, and the parties agreed on and signed a contract covering two of those categories. Later, by oral agreement the third category initially bid on was added at… Read More

A corporate manager with control over construction funds, facing personal liability under the NY trust fund law to an unpaid sub and the homeowner for improper diversion of funds, cannot discharge that liability in a personal bankruptcy. Even when th… Read More